Sunday, 22nd October 2006 at 15:33

Last week, we presented the first 15th Anniversary brochure from an outside travel company, and took a look at just how well it sold the all-important 15th Anniversary Celebration. This week, we take a look at the first official brochure - the Disneyland Resort Paris Groups brochure, in French. Do they do a good job of selling their own celebration?,

The “Groups” brochure is traditionally produced a few months before it’s “Official Holiday Guide” cousin, since the market it is created for generally needs more time to book and plan their visit. The seasonal editions are far thinner than the public brochure and don’t always give exact pricing details (these are featured in a separate supplement), but instead give information and photos to sell the resort’s general experience. With the 15th Anniversary brochure, then, can you guess what they’re trying to sell?

Front Cover / Introduction Pages

First impressions are extraordinary – a stunning, shiny “15” with all the characters bursting out of it grabs your attention immediately. It looks whimsical, fun and very special. If the public brochure uses a design like this, we can be sure they’ll be flying off travel agents’ shelves.

Opening up the brochure, and the magic continues. The nighttime castle visual has been extended across two pages, with a huge 15th Anniversary logo and lots of excitable information about the events. “It’s our biggest celebration ever!” reads the brochure, “More than ever, the Disney Characters will be waiting to greet your group. Come and laugh, sing and dance with them, in locations created especially for the festivities.” It then goes on to describe the special pricing offers during the year, as well as the introduction of Extra Magic Hours (the rather clumsy “Des Heures de Magie en Plus” in French) which will be featured throughout the year. “Your members and groups absolutely cannot miss this occasion!”

15th Anniversary double spread

The brilliant design continues to the next double spread, for the 15th Anniversary itself. They’ve separated Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios very well, giving each their own page with the biggest new feature getting a large image in the centre. It’s not too crowded, uses lots of good images and features all the events in good bullet point sections at the bottom. Some of the “nouveau” fonts are a little strange, but the excellence of the rest of the design makes up for this.

Seasons & Events and Why Book in 2007 / Back Cover

Finally, we have a Seasons & Events page and a “Why to book with Disneyland Resort Paris now” page. The Seasons & Events page is simple enough, with the usual information and even the actual dates for 2007’s seasons, which before now had not been confirmed. Halloween: 6th October to 4th November 2007, Christmas: 10th November 2007 to 6th January 2008.

The “Why book now” page, on the other hand, is a far stronger “sell” than we usually see from the resort. Obviously concerned that in 2007 they need lots of bookings “or else”, they’ve taken to bullet-pointing reasons why 2007 is the year to visit. It recaps all the 15th events, ticket offers, Extra Magic Hours, and on so on to build up a very good case for booking with the resort. It’s unlikely we’ll see something this strong in the public brochure, but for a Groups brochure is works very well, especially when surrounded by more nice characters from the official visuals.

If this is the quality of an 8-page groups brochure, imagine the quality of the final Official Holiday Guide! This really could be a year of total turnaround for the resort.

Celebration Score: 9/10

You can see the brochure in Disney’s e-brochure format here, or download it as a PDF here.

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